“How do we raise more awareness for our cause?”
“What fundraising event shall we put on next year?”
Unfortunately another question we hear a lot is: “How do we make the most of social media as a charity?”
Social media is such an important tool for charities in communicating with potential fundraisers and beneficiaries - here are our top tips on how you can use it to your advantage.
Nonprofit profiles
You can identify yourself as a not-for-profit organisation on most social platforms. Here’s what it means for you…
Easily identifiable for visitors so they know who you are and (sometimes) what you do.
Some platforms have additional features, such as a ‘donate’ button at the top of your profile.
Your profile is more trustworthy as visitors are made aware of your authenticated charity status.
Here’s how to do it!
Instagram (Once you’ve set up a business account, you can select ‘Nonprofit Organization’ from the categories available)
LinkedIn (Scroll down to ‘How to Create a Company Page)
As most platforms are owned by American corporations, such as Meta, your account will be shown as a ‘Nonprofit Organization’ rather than ‘Not-for-profit Organisation’, but that’s okay!
Donation buttons
Why not include a CTA (Call To Action) which will encourage your audience to donate?
An Instagram story is a wonderful thing. Once you’ve taken or uploaded an image or video you can add a story sticker, including the donation option which can be used by you as a charity, or anyone fundraising for you - just confirm which charity you’re raising money for and choose a goal amount.
These stickers last 30 days per fundraiser, and are a fantastic way to encourage people to donate.
An alternative way to encourage donations is through a Facebook donation advert. Simply go to ‘Ads Manager’ and create an advert as normal, then set ‘donate’ as your CTA and link to your fundraising page.
Showing the people behind the charity
People love getting to know people! It’s part of our human nature.
So, whether you share what your team has been up to this week or take pictures at your next outing, post it on social media - either on your story or your feed, it’s your choice!
Knowing your audience
Whatever your main goal, make it clear on your social media.
Wanting to encourage more people to donate? Include relevant CTAs.
Wanting more businesses to take part in local fundraising events in your name? Speak directly to them.
Wanting people to come to you to benefit from what the charity is providing? Explain exactly how they can reach out to you for help.
Whatever it is, make sure to get what you’re trying to say across the right way.
Community and content go hand-in-hand
Whether you’re celebrating an awareness day, using relevant hashtags, or sharing the posts of people who are supporting you, community and social media content blend into one.
Make use of content calendars such as Sendible’s or Twitter’s to ensure you never miss an awareness day, and can get your story across to an already-engaged audience.
Your hashtag campaign ties in with your community too, if you’re using relevant hashtags you can target potential donors, supporters, or people who will benefit from your charity.
Oh, and one more thing… shout about the people supporting you! It’s so important to reshare any fundraisers or work people have done for your charity, or anyone posting about how you’ve helped them. Not only does it give them a boost, but it’s also great for your credibility and might inspire some more people to get in touch.
Not using your charity social media page to its full potential?
Having worked with a number of charities and not for profit clients in the past and still do, we know working for a charity means you wear a lot of hats, which can often lead to your social presence being neglected.
Fortunately, we have a team of experienced communication pros just waiting to help!
Whether you need help re-writing your website to attract potential donors or want to shout about all the fantastic local businesses supporting your organisation on your social media, we’d love to hear from you!
If you have time to do it yourself but you’re not sure where to start, we also offer bespoke training sessions including one to one Two Hour Takeovers which will allow you to hit the ground running.
Email info@jandpr.com for more information or to get started!
